No records to state hockey as national game

Hockey, the game that fetched six Olympic gold medals for India, may have been considered as a national game but there is no official record to state the same.

Hockey, the game that fetched six Olympic gold medals for India, may have been considered as a national game but there is no official record to state the same.

HT Image

As per a RTI of the sports ministry, there is no record to state that the government officially declared hockey as the national game even though the government's website claims it to be national game.

The government had issued notifications to declare peacock as national bird, tiger as national animal and dolphin as national aquatic animal. But, it never issued a notification to declare Mahatma Gandhi as Father of the Nation.

The curiosity about national symbols drove Lucknow-based 10-year-old Aishwarya Parashar to file an RTI application to the Prime Minister's Office seeking certified copies of orders related to declaration of National anthem, song, sport, animal, bird, flower and symbol.

Her queries were transferred to the home ministry which forwarded the query related to National Sport to the ministry of youth affairs and sports.

In a reply, sports ministry under secretary Shiv Pratap Singh Tomar wrote in Hindi to Aishwarya that the ministry has not declared any sport or game to be the National Game.

The government portal under the head National symbol has given details of 14 such symbols which include - flag, bird, flower, tree, Anthem, River, Aquatic Animal, State Emblem, Calender, Animal, Song, Fruit, Game, currency symbol.